List of civilian nuclear accidents

Scope of this article

1. Notably severe: there must be well-attested and substantial health damage, property damage or contamination; if an International Nuclear Event Scale level is available, of at least two.
2. Nuclear aspect: the damage must be related directly to nuclear operations or materials; the event should involve fissile material or a reactor, not merely having occurred at the site of a nuclear power plant.
3. Primarily civilian: the nuclear operation/material must be principally for non-military purposes.

   1950s

• — INES Level 5 – Chalk River, Ontario, Canada – Reactor core damaged
• 29 Sept 1957 — INES Level 6 — Mayak plutonium-production plant — Nuclear waste tank explosion — Main Article: Kyshtym disaster
• 10 Oct 1957 — INES Level 5 — Windscale, plutonium production reactor
• — INES Level needed – Chalk River, Ontario, Canada – Fuel damaged
• — INES Level needed – Vinča, Serbia – Criticality excursion, irradiation of personnel
• — INES Level needed – Santa Susana Field Laboratory, California, United States – Partial meltdown

  1960s

• — INES Level needed – Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, United States – Core melt accident
• — INES Level needed – Wood River Junction, Richmond, Rhode Island, United States – Criticality accident
• — INES Level 4 – Monroe, Michigan, United States – Partial meltdown
• Winter 1966-1967 — INES Level needed - location unknown - Loss of coolant accident
• — INES Level needed – Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland, United Kingdom – Partial meltdown
• — INES Level 4 – Lucens, Canton of Vaud, Switzerland – Explosion

  1970s

• — INES Level 3 – Greifswald, Germany – Station blackout
• — INES Level 4 – Jaslovské Bohunice, Slovakia – Fuel damaged
• — INES Level 5 – Middletown, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, United States – Partial meltdown

  1980s

• — INES Level 4 – Saint-Laurent-des-Eaux, France – Nuclear materials leak
• — INES Level 2 – Tsuruga, Japan – Radioactive materials released into Sea of Japan; overexposure of workers
• — INES Level 4 – Buenos Aires, Argentina – Accidental criticality
• — INES Level 7 – Pripyat, Ukraine – Power excursion, explosion, complete meltdown
• — no INES Level – Hamm-Uentrop, Germany – Fuel damaged

  1990s

• — INES Level 4 – Tomsk-7, Russia – Explosion
• — INES Level 2 – Ishikawa Prefecture, Japan – Control rod malfunction
• — INES Level 4 – Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan – Accidental criticality

  2000s

• — INES Level 3 – Paks, Hungary – Fuel damaged
• — INES Level 3 – Sellafield, England, United Kingdom – Nuclear material leak
• November 2005 — INES Level needed – Braidwood, Illinois, United States – Nuclear material leak
• — INES Level 2 – Erwin, Tennessee, United States – Nuclear material leak
• — INES Level 2 – Paks, Hungary – A device fallen in the reactor hall while transported.

  2010s

• 11–20 March 2011 — INES Level 7 Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, Japan – Partial meltdowns in multiple reactors